Ace
Like her one-time partner Jest'liana Warren, Anastasia Rathgard has shunned her birthname for a monosyllabic moniker. Those that know her simply know her as Ace, and little information exists to link the two identities together. Her history is a tangled and colorful tale of war, betrayal, scandal, and ultimately glory. Lady Midnight Rathgard is the name of a distinguished family on Resilience with a long history of military service, and if the few fragmented chunks of data that predate the catastrophic end of the Boromov regime can be trusted, their daughter Anastasia was no exception. Though the scant existing documents seem to indicate that the pedigreed soldier maintained a clean and exemplary service record, the exact nature of her "service" to those in power remains largely a mystery. During the time this particular Anastasia was doing her patriotic duty, stories of an individual of the same name were whispered in the Rock's dark corridors. According to legend, when some fool had fallen out of Lord Boromov's favor, and all other options had been exhausted... she would pay that unlucky soul a visit, and the time for talking was over. Polunocnica -- a demon, they called her, one of the crime lord's most trusted associates. The swirl of rumor and myth was swallowed up in a torrent of flame when the Nall attacked, and charred remains later identified as Anastasia's were found among the smoking ruins. Much to the shock of the Ungstiri people, the name would appear in headlines again in 3002, when the ex-militiawoman was named in the shooting of Ambassador Katya Innokentevna in the Resilience loading bay. However, questions still remain as to whether or not it is the same woman or someone who has simply taken on the identity of the late Anasatasia. Two Ungstiri So what happened between the fall of Boromov and the alleged assassination attempt? The first emergence of the "Ace" persona appears in 3002, when the terms of Kula's Peace would see the release of Ungstiri prisoners held in labor camps on Lebal. A badly burned, scarred, and disfigured woman identifying herself by that name alone disembarked from the shuttle, and following a series of odd jobs in the rowdy bars of the nightlife district, found herself in the employ of Syeryloshat Couriers. Ace was hired on as a bodyguard for the adventurous and fiery Katya, taking up residence on the Gray Horse itself and joining the courier on her many travels around the Orion Arm. Those that knew the pair claimed that they were as close as sisters and it is also rumored that Ace was a close friend of Katya's brother, Dmitri, who did not survive his imprisonment on Lebal. All of this casts a bizarre and unusual light on the shooting, an incident that remains largely unexplained and is never spoken of by Ace herself. Ultimately, the controversy surrounding the crime earned the former bodyguard the unenviable status of social pariah and led to her exile from Ungstir itself. The Laughing Fox Luckily for Ace, she had connections. She had forged a strong friendship with the then-captain of the UKT Faux, Jest'liana Warren, and was graciously welcomed into its ranks as its second-in-command. Aboard the famous freighter, she began the long journey toward redeeming herself, listing among her heroic exploits assistance to a Drakarian mission to Earth and leading the Lucky Thirteen into the final battle of the Birthright War. It was not long after joining the Faux that the horrible scars that marred her face and body miraculously vanished without any trace of surgery having been performed. Following the death of Jest'liana, Ace formally assumed command of the Faux, which she still captains to this day. She is known to be romantically involved with Joshua Kravos, and purportedly has adopted the Castori nicknamed Raz Blackpaw as her son. ----category:OtherSpace Characters category:A to Z